1. Field
The disclosure relates to a method, system, and article of manufacture for communications channels in a storage network.
2. Background
A network may include a collection of nodes, such as computing systems, storage servers, etc., that are in communication with each other over communication links. There are many types of network, including local area networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN), intranet, Internet, Storage Area Networks (SAN), etc. A high-speed subnetwork of storage servers and storage devices may be included in a SAN, where the storage servers may provide or control access to data that may be stored in the storage devices. For example, IBM* TotalStorage* Enterprise Storage Servers* (ESS) may function as storage servers in a SAN environment. IBM, TotalStorage, and Enterprise Storage Server are trademarks or registered Trademarks of IBM corporation.
A communication channel may allow communication between two entities. For example, two nodes, such as, a client node and a server node, of a network may communicate via a communication channel. A variety of communication protocols may be used to communicate over communication channels. For example, the Transmission Control Protocol or First in First Out (FIFO) mechanisms may be used to communicate over certain communication channels.
The Transmission Control Protocol may require point-to-point communication channels. Implementations of the Transmission Control Protocol may provide a reliable delivery of messages from a local node to a remote node. However, implementations of the Transmission Control Protocol may not indicate whether an application on the remote node accepted a message without error, where the message was sent by the local node.
FIFO mechanisms may demultiplex incoming messages for a server, but may need separate channels for outgoing messages to clients. Additionally, FIFO mechanisms may send outgoing messages from a server through one buffer. As a result, a selected client may not be able to determine when to read messages from the server that are meant for the selected client.